'GENOCIDE'
THE Chinese government has been accused of carrying out a policy of cultural and ethnic "genocide" against the Uighur minority.
China claims prison camps were established to combat an alleged terrorist threat.
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What is happening to Uighur Muslims in China?
An estimated one million Uighurs and other minority groups have been detained in Chinese prison camps since 2015.
The camps were started under General Secretary Xi Jinping’s administration as a way of adhering to “national ideology”.
People have been subjected to torture, sterilization and political indoctrination in addition to forced labor as part of a brutal assimilation campaign in a region with a Han Chinese majority.
There have also been reports of forced birth control.
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Who are the Uighurs?
The Uighurs, or Uyghurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from central and eastern Asia.
They are recognised as being native to the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region in north west China and officially recognised as one of China’s 55 ethnic minorities.
The Chinese government only recognises them as a regional minority in a multicultural nation.
An estimated 80 per cent of Xinjiang's Uighurs still live in the Tarim Basin.
Members of the ethnic group do not just live in China though and can also be found in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkey.
There are thought to be around 13.5million Uighurs worldwide.
Most Uighurs follow Islam with the majority being Sunnis.
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Why are Uighur Muslims targeted?
Critics have said China is carrying out a policy of cultural and ethnic genocide against the Uighurs.
The Chinese government maintains its actions in Xinjiang as justifiable responses to a threat of extremism and terrorism.
China’s treatment of the Uighurs has been condemned by the US.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took aim at China over its policies towards Muslims and other ethnic groups in his last speech before Joe Biden took over the White House.
Pompeo said western Xinjiang region's actions constitute “crimes against humanity” and is “genocide.”
Chinese persecution of the Uighurs
2014 – Chinese government starts imposing religious, cultural and economic restrictions and controls
2015 – The start of the detention of Uighurs in prison camps, called “re-education camps” aimed at changing the political thinking of detainees, their identities, and their religious beliefs. The focus of the camps is to ensure adherence to Chinese Communist Party ideology
2017 – A report by Human Rights Watch calls for the closure of the camps, saying: "The Chinese government agents should immediately free people held in unlawful 'political education' centres in Xinjiang, and shut them down.”
2018 – A BBC News report analyses satellite imagery and claims hundreds of thousands of Uighurs were interned in the camps
2019 – A New York Times article reported that human rights groups and Uighur activists said that the Chinese government was using technology from US companies and researchers to collect DNA from Uyghurs and were building up a DNA database to be able to track down Uighurs who were resisting “re-education”.
2020 – Donald Trump signs the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act which authorizes the imposition of sanctions against Chinese government officials responsible for re-education camps. In the same year German scholar Adrian Zenz released a report, "Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang”. He claimed Uighur women were being forced to abort babies, undergo sterilization and be fitted with contraceptive devices, under threat of being put in a camp
2021 - British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said China's treatment of Uighurs amounted to torture
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Pompeo said in a statement: “After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China, under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party, has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uighurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.
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“In addition, after careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that the PRC, under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.
"I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state.”
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says there are 'gross, egregious human rights abuses' going on in China